My mother will chide me for the nickname, but this is what I call my sister's cat, Cantankerous Kitty or C.K for short. C.K is a Himalayan Persian cat and when groomed looks like a marshmallow cookie on legs.
She and I have a "relationship", which is based on the principle that she is top cat and I am very low in the family pecking order. She and all her grooming products have taken over my old bedroom so I now sleep in my brother's room when I come to visit. She isn't all that keen about me sleeping there either, so to let me know just who's the boss, she bellows outside my bedroom door at 3.00 a.m. I do like my sleep so I guess you're starting to get the idea why I call her C.K.
Since her arrival at my parents home just over a year ago, she has firmly wedged herself into my parent's affections and as you can see has also wedged herself quite firmly onto their old bedroom chair. Her favourite activity (or perhaps that should be inactivity) is sleeping and she has a variety of positions. And yes, she really is that fluffy.
Have a great weekend every-one,
Jillian
Coming back from Brisbane on Monday has put my schedule all out of kilter. I still haven't prepared my images from Brisbane but hopefully I'll have enough images so I post about my trip home on Friday.
I've been working on perfecting my brownie recipe all year and I think I may have finally achieved it. I've been reducing the quantity of flour each time I bake them and I think I now have the right balance of doneness and squidginess though I rather think I just made up those 2 words. The brownies are quite dense and chocolatey, filled with walnuts and iced with a melted chocolate topping cos I think brownies look a bit plain unadorned.
One of the girls at work took a bite and declared they were the best chocolate brownies, ever - hence the title of the post. My piece of brownie is still waiting for me in the freezer for one of those days when nothing but chocolate will do.
See you again soon,
Jillian
Apologies every-one but my web server is down so that's why there are no images or header on my blog. I'm hoping this is just a temporary glitch. I've uploaded these new images via a different route and played with the dimensions so I hope they look okay.
I went up to Brisbane for the weekend and will have lots of images to post in the next few weeks. Until I have time to prepare those images I'll leave you with some images of a Mandarin Bakewell Tart I made a few weeks ago. A Bakewell Tart is a British invention that uses an almond frangipane filling over a layer of jam, topped with almonds.
I thought it would be a good opportunity to use the mandarin curd I made during my citrus curd marathon a few weeks ago and I used some almond pastry that I had lurking in the fridge. The tart wasn't perfect (the filling pulled away a littlle from the pastry) but it was enjoyed by my work colleagues. Later on I discovered a full jar of mandarin curd in the fridge so I have no idea what flavour curd I used. I think it may have been the lemon curd but no matter it still tasted fine.
I have plans to make a lime, macadamia and coconut version 'cos you guessed it, I still have a jar of lime curd in the fridge. Well I think it's lime curd.
I hope every-one had a lovely weekend,
Jillian
P.S Everything is back in order so I'm reposting this with higher quality images.
It's a year since I flew to the UK which means it's a year since my last holiday and boy am I feeling the strain! Looking through my images I realised I didn't ever post about my visit to Marche aux Puces. I was in Paris last August which is vacation month in Paris and I had no idea that Paris literally shuts for the month.
I arrived early and not a single shop was open. I was a bit sad that I'd travelled so far and I wasn't going to experience the markets but slowly a few more shops opened. In the end I was able to get an idea of the market experience and vowed to return to Paris and the markets, hopefully in 2010.
I'm going away for the weekend so I won't be posting for the next few days.
Happy Weekend,
Jillian
I am now unofficially known as the 'egg thief' at work. How did I earn this title? We are often given food at work and when we place it on the table it's known as 'free for all'. When 4 dozen enormous farm fresh eggs appeared on the kitchen bench last Wednesday, we all wondered if they were free for all. When they remained untouched on Thursday the word went round that they were.
On Friday I brought in an egg container and carefully took 6 of the eggs home as I had plans to make a passionfruit tart. They were the largest eggs I've ever seen and when weighed they topped the scales at 75 grams. I made the tart on Sunday and whilst the pastry was crisp and light, the filling was a bit of a disaster. It really wouldn't set properly and cooked into nothingness so I didn't even bother taking a photograph and I dispatched the tart straight to work. I did make 2 small tarts for myself and took a photo of the better one of the two.
Whilst the tart was no thing of beauty, it tasted gloriously and intensely of passionfruit and the whole thing was gone before lunch time. Later in the afternoon, long after the tart had been consumed, I heard the owner of the eggs complaining that by the time she'd taken them home on Friday some of her eggs had been pinched! Mortified I 'fessed up immediately and explained that they were part of the very tart that she'd consumed.
The cries of 'thief, thief' when I walked in the office the next day were a little over the top I thought but I think all was forgiven when I was asked for the recipe. The recipe hasn't been written yet but I think the first instruction might be, don't use 4 farm fresh eggs....
Jillian
Isn't this a pretty magazine cover? I do very little print advertising but I'm proud to say that I am now advertising in Bride to Be magazine. Why am I proud? Bride to Be chooses who they want to include in their magazine and I'm one of only 8 photographers featured in the magazine. I'm in stellar company.
The magazine is now on the news stand and I received my copy last Friday. I might be biased but this issue is absolutely gorgeous and not just because it features my photos of Katrina and Efren's lovely wedding day.
I'll be back tomorrow,
Jillian
We've been having the most amazing weather in Sydney this past week. The skies are blue and the temperature has been pretty mild. It could be spring!
The dinner is in the oven and as I'm writing this I'm archiving files. What used to be a simple process - placing negatives in archival sleeving with a label - has now become a triple back-up process. First step involves downloading the cards onto an external hard disc drive which is back-up one. I then save the prepared jpegs and collages onto the laptop which is back-up 2 and then I burn a copy of everything to dvd - back-up 3. Then and only then do I wipe the memory cards.
I've done quite a bit of baking today, which I shouldn't do when I'm tired. The passionfruit tart I made isn't what it should be, so I didn't bother taking any photos of it. It's now on my list of 'redos' which thankfully isn't too long. Instead I'm posting my version of Bill Granger's Macadamia Lime and Coconut Cake. At work we all like using Bill's recipes as they're simple, don't use too many ingredients and best of all, taste really good.
I live quite close to bills in Woollahra and Surry Hills and the food from the books appear on the menus.
I first made this cake last year and it turned out perfectly. I made the cake a few months ago and took it with me to a bbq. I was told the cake was delicious but it turned out quite flat and I was a bit disappointed so this time I decided to bake the cake in a 20 cm (8 inch cake tin). This time the cake was a mile high so who knows what went wrong. The best part of the cake - the lime icing!
Back to work tomorrow so bye for now,
Jillian
As promised, here is part 2 of my blog post on Parterre. After roaming around the store I made my way into the courtyard garden.
The garden area is a delightful mix of vintage and modern - beautiful gates with the patina of age, water features, topiaries, potted plants, vessels and watering cans. Lots of things to covet I can assure you.
There was also a special visitor to the shop last Sunday - a 5 year old Pomeranian, Maltese cross called Bushie (I think). Bushie trotted happily through the store as I was taking photos, then took a stroll in the garden. Bushie sat quite happily and posed for photos before leaving the shop to continue with his Sunday morning stroll.
I can't wait to see what other treasures I can find next time I visit Parterre.
Have a great weekend every-one,
Jillian
I love pretty shiny things and if my own apartment wasn't so streamlined design wise, I certainly think I could live with a chandelier. My grandmother loved chandeliers and managed to squeeze two into her tiny 1 bedroom apartment. When she moved, one of those chandeliers went with her. Why am I writing about chandeliers? You may well ask.
I used to live in Woollahra and Queen Street has always been one of my favourite shopping areas. On Sunday I paid a visit to Parterre, a beautiful store housed in an old sandstone building in Woollahra.
Inside is a treasure trove of French antiques and collectibles whilst outside there is a parterre garden. There are magnificent tables, lights, glassware, mirrors and of course, chandeliers on display. I was in heaven. Robert gave me free rein of the store and I photographed happily for an hour. As I took so many images I'll be doing 2 posts on Parterre. Today I'll post the interiors whilst the next post will concentrate on the garden.
Every time I photograph one of these beautiful stores, I leave with a few mementos. I brought home 2 beautiful Portuguese plates from Parterre - a geranium plate and a cabbage plate - which no doubt you'll see in some of my food photography.
I received an email from Kim today letting me know that a new shipment of goodies has just arrived at the store so even more reasons to visit Parterre!
I hope you enjoy the images. Please check back Friday for part 2 of the post.
Jillian
